ascension dayThursday is Ascension Day. Many churches will also mark it on Sunday, but unlike Easter, it will draw little attention. Two thoughts immediately come to mind when I think about the doctrine of the ascension: one comic, and one imaginative. A friend of mine in seminary had just finished writing his Presbyterian ordination exams. "How'd it go?" I asked. "Bad," he said, shaking his head. "The theology exam was all about the doctrine of the ascension. I couldn't think of what to say so I just wrote, ‘Beam me up, Jesus.'" It was true. Little time in class had been spent discussing Christ's ascension. I suspect that has resulted in few Presbyterian sermons about the ascension.
That is too bad. Though the meaning of the ascension may be hard for some to understand, it carries important theological significance. Much more than Jesus being beamed upward, the ascension offers believers tangible promises of hope and power. But many of us face the same problems my friend did. How do we speak of an event that defies easy explanation? I think this is where imagination comes into play. The references in the New Testament which speak of Jesus' ascension require some theological understanding. For example, when Luke, in Acts 1:1-11 writes of Jesus' ascension, he is describing the event from the experience of the bewildered and anxious disciples. Yes, they know Christ to have been raised. But they are still confused (see Acts 1:6). Jesus, however, imagines another possibility. He yearns for them to become apostles, to be messengers, the sent out ones. They are to become witnesses to all they have seen and believed in him.
That is the promise he offers as he ascends. Reformer John Calvin put it this way, "As his body was raised up above all the heavens, so his power and energy were diffused and spread beyond all the bounds of heaven and earth." The ascension anticipates the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit will change these individuals into a community. The issue for me is not about explaining how or where Jesus went. The issue, as I see it, is one of theological imagination. In the ascension, we are called to imagine where God is about to call us. In Acts, Luke reminds us angels called out the disciples. "Why are you looking up?" In other words, suggests Ken Carter, be faithful and get to work.
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